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An Oceanside Celebration without the Ocean!
You don't have to have an ocean to set
a beautiful oceanside tablescape! The South Carolina Grand Strand is one of my favorite places, but I have
to drive all day and night to get there, so sometimes I just settle for a pretty table! Southern Illinois is filled
with beautiful lakes, but it isn't quite the same!
The table is set with Studio Nova Barrier Reef dinnerware that I
bought several years ago in Myrtle Beach, SC. The next summer I bought all the serving pieces and recently added the
glassware. Fortunately for me, seaside patterns never go away, so the glasses were a perfect match! The best of
our massive collection of shells help create the table appointments.
The long picnic table is covered with an aqua hand-woven rug and
a long line of shells sprinkles down the center like a runner. Composed on the end of the 8 foot table is a combination
of pots of real herbs with strands of faux decorative grass perched right in the pots ... and more shells. I loved looking at the table from the opposite end
... through the herbs and grass. It reminded me of those wonderful shore grasses that wave softly in the ocean winds.
Click
the picture for the recipe for this zesty Stuffed Southern Illinois Prawns with a Lemon Wine Sauce! Of course, you can
use ocean shellfish! You'll also find my favorite recipe for Shrimp Scampi. In the days when I owned an Italian
Steakhouse, this was one of our customers' picks!
My little school of fish are actually over-sized wash
cloths! I rolled them and inserted them in napkin rings and fanned the ends to look like fish tails. I think
it is important to have absorbent napkins when we eat with our fingers and often times, seaside dinners include cracking and
peeling and eating shellfish! It isn't uncommon to find finger bowls filled with lemon water on my seaside tables, too!
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